Our People

Academics and experts from across ERA partner institutions and industrial organisations are involved in ERA research, development and training activities. They are supported by a small central team:

Gordon Waddington — Chief Executive Officer

Gordon Waddington joined ERA as its inaugural CEO in 2015, having previously held a variety of roles at Rolls-Royce, including Director of Research and Technology and President of Rolls-Royce Civil Nuclear. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers, former Chairman of the Industrial Advisory Board Imperial College London, and in 2001 was awarded the RaES British Gold Medal for contributions to technology advances.

Dr Emma Kelly — Chief Operating Officer

Dr Emma Kelly has overall operational responsibility for the £180m Energy Research Accelerator (ERA) Programme. Emma joined ERA in 2016, having previously led operational activities within the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing at the University of Nottingham. Emma has led large, multi-collaborator research programmes (EU, national and industrial) and has a research background in aerospace manufacturing; specifically evolvable assembly systems and servitization.

Emma has extensive management experience within the higher education sector, including securing grant funding for and overseeing delivery of complex, high profile research and knowledge transfer investments. Prior to joining ERA, Emma coordinated and drove the development of strategic roadmaps charting the future research direction in intelligent manufacturing.

Nick King — Marketing and Communications Manager

With many years' experience in Marketing and Public Relations positions in both the private and public sectors, including the University of Nottingham and East Midlands Development Agency, Nick’s role is to promote ERA's work to a diverse range of stakeholders. Nick supports ERA marketing activities across the six partner universities and the British Geological Survey.

Jane Spencer — Skills Officer

Jane is responsible for the development of the ERA Skills Programme across the consortium. Jane joined ERA in February 2017 to operationalise phase 1 of the programme – the doctoral training partnership. Based at Loughborough University, she works across the partners to facilitate cohort building via the provision of workshops, seminars and conferences. Jane works with industrial partners to develop ERA’s role in addressing industry’s key energy challenges.

Jane has a broad range of experience encompassing university administration, event management and facilitating links between industrial and academic partners to increase research and development within the field of renewable energy.

Lauren Dunn — Executive Assistant

Lauren joined in 2017 to support the ERA Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and the central ERA team to assist in the ERA strategy and associated plans through the provision of high-level executive support. She has considerable experience and background in administrative support and previous roles in research support within the University of Nottingham.

Research theme leaders

Professor Martin Freer — Thermal-ERA

Martin Freer is head of Nuclear Physics, Director of the Birmingham Energy Institute and the Birmingham Centre for Nuclear Education and Research at the University of Birmingham. In 2015 he co-led the Birmingham Energy Institute Commission, chaired by Lord Teverson, examining "Doing Cold Smarter", and in 2012 he led the Policy Commission, chaired by Lord Hunt, on the "Future of Nuclear Energy in the UK". He established the Birmingham Centre for Nuclear Education and Research in 2010. His main research area is the study of the structure of light nuclei, using nuclear reactions. This research is performed at international facilities worldwide. In addition, he is actively engaged in promoting research and educational programmes to support the UK’s investment in nuclear power generation. He received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize, Humboldt Foundation, Germany in 2004 and the Rutherford Medal (IoP) in 2010.

Dr Emma Kendrick — Integrated Storage-ERA

Dr Emma Kendrick FIMMM, FRSC, is a materials chemist and energy storage technical specialist, and joined WMG in late 2016 after a period of years leading industrial R&D projects in novel battery technologies. Formerly she was the chief technologist in energy storage at Sharp Laboratories of Europe Ltd (SLE) where she established the energy storage research and development program in sodium ion batteries; prior to SLE she was lead scientist for two start-up companies in lithium ion batteries, Surion Energy and Fife Batteries. She has been active in the field of functional materials for nearly 20 years, initially developing new ceramic pigments and synthesis methods for pigments (CERAM and Holliday pigments/ Lboro Uni) and latterly moved into the energy materials sector, fuel cells (Uni Surrey) and batteries. External positions include honorary positions within the departments of chemical engineering at University College London, and chemistry at the University of Birmingham, she is a recent appointee in the strategic advisory team (SAT) for EPSRC in physical sciences and a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry materials division council, as well as having several advisory board positions including STFC batteries and Energy SuperStore. Her academic qualifications include a BSc in chemistry from the University of Manchester, MSc and PhD in solid state materials from the University of Aberdeen and Keele University /CERAM research.

Professor Seamus Garvey — Geo-ERA

Professor Seamus Garvey leads the Geo-Energy Theme within the Energy Research Accelerator.

Seamus has two parallel streams of research work. One relates to gas turbine engines and specifically to their transmission systems. Seamus is also director of a University Technology Centre in this area and his own research contribution here still focuses on dynamic behaviours - especially with the coupling between electrical and mechanical subsystems. Seamus is passionate about energy storage - and integrating this with renewable energy harvesting.

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